Resilliance

Resilience is the ability to withstand and recover from difficulties.

I saw the lovely old lamp in the photo above shining underwater in the recent floods in NSW. It symbolised resilience to me and how we need to cultivate that ability to mentally and emotionally cope with crisis and return as quickly as we can to pre-crisis status.

During the flood, the powerful surge of water raced past these lamps, as they have many times over the years, carrying away anything in their path and transforming the landscape, for a few days. The water level came up fast this flood. Even though there was a lot of rain and flooding elsewhere, it looked like we might be spared along our river, and in many ways, we were, with mass devastation elsewhere. Our mighty Clarence is such a big river and can move incredible amounts of water. The surrounding areas, the towns and the islands within the river are well used to being inundated, still, it takes real resilience to stay standing after the surge.

In many ways, that metaphor applies to us all, there are floods, and we can be swept away, tossed around or become swamped. It takes great resilience to just stay standing, let alone continue shining like an old lamp in the dark swirling waters. We are all dealing with so many obstacles today, climate change, pandemic, drought, bushfires, our health, the economy, all the stress that comes with today’s lifestyle. People are realizing that you can’t control everything. You can’t make your life perfect, but you can be the kind of person who, when obstacles pop up or crises hit, has the strength to face them and thrive. People with an intellectual disability are at a higher risk of experiencing adversities. Developing resilience offers personal growth after facing these challenging times. ';

There are four different kinds of resilience. Varying in their availability for all of us, and especially those of us with a disability.

Mental - Being mindful and aware of the difficulty and able to motivate yourself to act.

Emotional - The ability to bring about positive emotions when you need them, like optimism, curiosity, or joy.

Social -Being able to reach out to others for help when you need it. Also being the kind of person that others are likely to want to support and encourage.

Physical - To be able to face physical challenges and physically able to address problems.

Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy, facilitated by an art therapist, using various art materials and art making as part of the therapeutic treatment. It does not rely on artistic knowledge or ability and there is no right or wrong way of expressing yourself through art. By accessing imagination and creativity, it focuses on the process and not on the finished product. The art therapy experience encourages the exploration of self through art making.

Art therapy and mindfulness can offer insight into your own strengths and gently guide you to find the tools available to you to become a conscious creator of your life.

Art therapy is often used in building emotional resilience. It works best as a directive-based intervention, guiding the client to use an art activity to overcome negative experiences, something that has been causing pain or creating blocks. The art process and work created enables a non-invasive approach to allowing the client to talk about sensitive and deep emotions through the artwork.

Art is often used as a tool for self-expression, allowing the client to get in tune, consciously and subconsciously, with emotions. The art therapist assists in allowing the client to be aware, via the expression of art, of what may be lying in the subconscious. It allows the client to be more self-reflective; the therapist guiding in the reflection, perhaps introducing new perspectives.

I am offering both group and individual sessions and we can work on resllience or any other theme you would like to explore.